Soyuz 9

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Soyuz 9
Mission statistics
Mission name Soyuz 9
Crew size 2
Call sign Сокол (Sokol - "Falcon")
Launch date June 1, 1970
19:00:00 UTC
Gagarin's Start
Landing June 19, 1970
11:58:55 UTC
50° N, 72° E
Mission duration 17d/16:58:55
Number of orbits 288
Related missions
Previous mission Next mission
Soyuz 8 Soyuz 10

Soyuz 9 paved the way for the Salyut space station missions, investigating the effects of long-term weightlessness on crew, and evaluating the work that the cosmonauts could do in orbit, individually and as a team.

Commander Andrian Nikolayev and flight-engineer Vitali Sevastyanov spent eighteen days in space conducting various physiological and biomedical experiments on themselves, but also investigating the social implications of prolonged spaceflight. The cosmonauts spent time in two-way TV links with their families, watched the World Cup football game, played chess with ground control, and voted in a Soviet election. The mission set a new space endurance record and marked a shift in emphasis away from spacefarers merely being able to exist in space for the duration of a long mission (such as the Apollo flights to the moon) and being able to live in space.

Soyuz-9 on the 1971 USSR commemorative stamp "424 hours On Earth's Orbit"
Soyuz-9 on the 1971 USSR commemorative stamp "424 hours On Earth's Orbit"

On their return to Earth, the crew was found to have weakened considerably, and it took some ten days for them to regain their strength. In orbit, they had sacrificed some of their exercise time for the sake of carrying out their scientific work, and their bodies' reactions to the prolonged weightlessness emphasised the importance of maintaining regular exercise.

Contents

[edit] Crew[1]

Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.

[edit] Backup Crew

[edit] Reserve Crew

[edit] Mission parameters

  • Mass: 6590 kg (14,530 lb)
  • Perigee: 176 km (109 mi)
  • Apogee: 227 km (141 mi)
  • Inclination: 51.6°
  • Period: 88.5 min

[edit] References

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